Could The Chevrolet Malibu Make A Return To NASCAR?

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With Holden winding down its production ventures for 2017, the departure of the rear-wheel drive, 6.2-liter V8 powered Chevrolet SS will soon be upon us. That means the bowtie brand will no longer be interested in promoting it by using it as the body for their NASCAR Sprint Cup cars, so they will have to find a replacement.

Lately, Toyota and Ford have used NASCAR to promote their mid-size models, with the two brands running the Camry and Fusion, respectively. Chevrolet will start taking the mid-size segment much more seriously when they pull the veil from the 2016 Malibu in New York next week, so it would make sense if they switched to a new Malibu body for their next Sprint Cup car to help boost sales.

Chevrolet’s director of car marketing, Steve Majoros, recently toldReuters they are sitting “seventh or eighth place,” in the mid-size market and acknowledged they “have tremendous opportunity to grow.” The Camry and Fusion are some of the strongest mid-size nameplates around in regards to sales and if Chevy wants to contest them in the showroom, they might as well take it to the track, as well.

It wouldn’t be the first time the Malibu nameplate appeared in professional stock car racing. The Malibu was Chevrolet’s NASCAR body style from 1973 until 1983, when the automaker switched to the more performance oriented Monte Carlo. Now that they are serious about making the Malibu a more competitive rival to the Fusion and Camry, it seems like the best possible time for it to return to NASCAR.

The current Chevrolet SS NASCAR body isn’t all that old, having just been introduced in 2013, but it will have to be replaced eventually. It’s much too early to say what Chevy has up their sleeve in regards to a future Sprint Cup car, but the idea of the Malibu making a return to the series doesn’t seem too far fetched. If you think we’re a little off in our predictions, feel free to speculate what else Chevy might field in the series going forward in the comments.

I would wait as we have a little more time before we go to a new model. The SS will be here yet next year too.

GM has been wanting to keep to a car that looks somewhat stock and RWD. I am not sure where this will take us. Could there be some Alpha they have denied coming. An all new AWD Impala that they could base this on?

The only thing we do know is it will not be the Camaro as NASCAR wants to keep them in the series below.

It could be a BU but there is so much more that could happen here we just need to wait. When testing starts we should have a good idea if it is bases on a existing car or new car bases on the shape. They can’t hide that in testing at the track.

The author is mistaken… and incorrect… There is no “body” style in Nascab, all the styles are a generic spec shape- chevy- ford- toyota…. only the decals vary… The headline should read “Chevy to take SS decals off of the generic spec car and put Malibu decals on ” !!!! Back in 1973 until 1983, the Nascar shapes were actually accurate to the model being raced and Nascar even used lay in templates from the showroom stock models to verify.

That’s were u are wrong. Although the bodies aren’t close to being as stock as they were in the 70s-80s, they are much more unique than just stickers. In 2013 they introduced the gen 6 bodies to the sport, which means that each manufacturer has a unique chassis for their car. Not just stickers anymore friend, look up pictures of the 2013-15 fusions, camary, and SS if you don’t belive me. All unique, any NASCAR fan would know that

take a better look my friend, the front ends of the 3 are all different. The Ford front end is much different from the other 2. Chevy definitely needs something more round and sleek than the SS. something more like the Buick Regal, come on GM. lets see something really aerodynamic.

It’s not just the front end, but the whole body has character lines and identity that resemble the street car. Hood, quarter panels, doors, front and rear bumper all have unique shapes. All the cars behave similarly aero dynamically, but that’s to make the competition about the driver and not the OEMs(which I think is better). In the Xfinity series and also the Truck series now, it is only the nose that resembles the street version.

Why Nascar doesn’t race vehicles that Americans really buy, Sport Utility Vehicles .Think of all the excitement that would bring to the sport along with track side betting just like horse racing. That could get Nascar noticed world wide!

The reveal of the Malibu makes me think that it wouldn’t be the best choice for the loom of a stock car. If anything, they’ll probably switch back to the impala like they did with the cars from 2007 to 2012. Only they won’t be as bad as the CoT